Left 4 Dead: Tokyo Edition
by Kariston Draconis
Summary: 4 Strangers, brought together by chance, traped in a dead city. Join Ranma Saotome, Rei Hino, Dr Black Jack, and Dominic Santiago on their quest to either escape Tokyo by any means necessary, or die trying.


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Disclaimer: I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to say that I don't own Ranma ½; that honour goes to the respectable Rumiko Takahashi. Nor do I own Sailor Moon; you'll need to speak to Naoko Takeuchi about that. Black Jack is owned by the legendary Osamu Tezuka. The zombie blasting fun that is Left 4 Dead is the property of the wonderful folks over at Valve. And of course, the Locust-Chainsawing-Gorefest that is the always popular Gears of War is owned by the epic team at EPIC Games. That should hopefully take care of the legalities, and if the aforementioned groups wish to sue me, I respectfully point out that I am making no money off this, and as such any legal proceedings would be a waste of the times of all involved parties.

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**Left 4 Dead: Tokyo Edition**

Chapter 1: 4 ½ in Tokyo

Tokyo was dead. How? No-one really knew, though there were plenty of theories/rumours. Military experiment gone wrong, bio-terrorism, the Wrath of God... the list goes on. Still, everyone agreed that Tokyo was dead. Oh, there was still a city there, or at least the corpse of one. But you couldn't really call it a living city anymore, what with the fact that almost all the residents themselves were no longer among the living themselves. Oh sure, they still moved around the city, but there was no way you could confuse them with anything but what they were. Moving corpses, the Undead, Zombies.

Still, that wasn't to say that everyone in Tokyo was now dead. No, when the problem became too big that simply quarantining any infected was no longer an option, there had been a move by the JSDF to evacuate all un-infected civilians from the area. And, to their credit, they'd managed to pull it off, for the most part. Still, they hadn't been able to get everyone out. Some people hadn't made it to the evac zones in time, or there simply weren't enough transports for everyone in other zones. Some had even volunteered to stay behind, so that others could take their place, because they were, for whatever reason, immune to the virus.

This is the story of four such individuals, who for whatever reason, had been left behind. The four had met through various circumstances, and were now determined to get out on their own, or go down fighting. And they knew that they had a chance, because all four of them were, for some reason, immune. Now, let's meet our heroes...

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The young man knelt in front of the makeshift graves, his hands clasped in prayer. There were four graves in total, at least right in front of him. In other areas of the shrine grounds, there were other sets of recent graves, but these four graves were the ones that mattered to him. Four graves, with four names on the makeshift markers. Those names were: Ukyo Kuonji, Xian Pu, Kodachi Kuno, and Akane Tendo.

Still kneeling, Ranma Saotome looked up slightly, his eyes wet with silent tears. 'Whoever said that real men never cry is an idiot', he thought. He could still remember how it happened. Shampoo was the first to go, when she'd run up to that fat zombie, called a Boomer by the other survivors he'd later learned, and smacked it down something fierce, only to have the whole thing blow up in her face, literally. The force of the explosion had broken both her arms and one of her legs, as well as coating her in some stinking bile that seemed to drive the rest of the hoard crazy. They'd swarmed over her, and she hadn't stood a chance. She'd only had time for one pained scream, which was cut off suddenly in a bloody gurgle.

Kodachi was the next to go. The giant berserk zombie had seemingly come out of nowhere, throwing cars, debris, and other zombies around like they were made of cardboard. Just avoiding the flying obstacles had taken most of his concentration. Then, he'd heard that scream, that scream of pure terror, and seen Kodachi being strangled by that zombie with the really long tongue, Smokers he thought they were called, because they seemed to have smoke coming out of their very skin, on the rooftop of the nearby building. He'd tried to get to her, but the damn berserker, called a Tank he'd found out later, just wouldn't let him past. So she'd been helpless as she'd just hung there, and all he could do was watch as she choked to death.

Ukyo had been next. She'd been hit by a glancing blow from the Tank, and had gone flying at one of the ruined walls, being impaled through the stomach by a broken pipe. She hadn't even had time to scream as another hurled piece of debris had smashed right into her face with a sickening crunch, killing her instantly. This of course had sent Ranma into a rage, and he'd finally managed to take down the Tank. Of course, by this time he was exhausted. So he hadn't been able to react very quickly when one of those leaping ones, Hunters he recalled, had jumped out from the shadows right at him. Akane had noticed though, and had pushed him out of the way, only to have the Hunter rip her throat open in a single swipe.

He knew he would have been next, if not for the girl kneeling in a similar position in front of another set of recent graves maybe two meters away from him. She'd managed to take the Hunter by surprise, and even helped him get the bodies to this shrine so that he could lay them to rest, with the help of the two who now rested in their own graves, and a couple of others who were currently standing guard. They were planning on leaving soon, and Ranma planned to go with them. He knew that he owed Rei Hino his life, and Ranma Saotome always payed back his debts.

Glancing over at Ranma through her own blurred eyes, Rei had similar thoughts in her head; mainly that she owed her own life to the boy with the blue eyes and the pigtail. She didn't think that she would ever forget just what had happened, even if she didn't want to believe it.

She'd brought over her companions to help her with the boy and the bodies of his friends, and they'd managed to get them to the steps of the shrine, when they'd been attacked again, this time by a lone Hunter. It had first leaped at Yuichiro, who'd almost managed to get out of the way in time, but had still gotten a rather nasty gash on his arm. They'd managed to take it down fairly quickly, but the damage had already been done. While she herself was immune to the infection, it seemed that Yuichiro was not.

The change had only taken about thirty seconds or so, and then the thing that was once Yuichiro had gone straight for her grandfather, and drove its hand right into his chest. She and the others were still in shock when it happened, and then the thing had leapt right for her, and she knew she was going to die. Until the boy that she had been helping had just seemed to flow around her, grab the thing, snap its neck, and throw it head first into what was once a steel fence, impaling it on the sharp bent metal. Then he'd collapsed.

They'd managed to get the rest of the way to the shrine without incident, where they'd been able to get a bit of rest, food, and been able to bury their dead, which brought them back to the current situation.

"Come on you two, it's time to go" said a quiet voice. Rei looked at Ranma, who looked back and nodded. They were ready. Both stood up, and headed over to the speaker, the third member of their quartet of survivors, a shadowy figure with eerie black-and-white hair, a scar across his dual-toned face and dressed in a black suit with cape. "Thanks for being patient in allowing us to bury our dead, Dr. Hazama," the raven-tressed woman replied as she bowed to him.

The man's features scrunched in annoyance. "Please, don't call me that. I prefer to be called 'Dr. Black Jack'." He said as he stood back from the two younger people when they got close. "I've only allowed this so you can come to cope and be of use. If you're distracted, you won't last much longer and I've not been able to save any life today..." he mumbled as his hands clenched. He considered himself to be one of the premiere doctors in the world but the wounds that had been inflicted today, this communicable disease that turned people into monsters... he was of no more use than a field medic at this point.

The Senshi of Mars raised her head, eyes narrowed as she glared at the supposed medical genius. "You're a cruel man, you know that?"

"These are cruel times, Hino-san," was the rather blunt reply of their teammate. "As men are capable of goodness they are also adept at harshness. My outward appearance should be more than a sign of such." He said as he leaned forward.

Ranma frowned as he stepped between the two. "Hey! Ease up, both of ya! We've all seen too much death but we have to keep our heads together and tempers in check or else we're joining the hordes of the dead!" He snapped suddenly.

Looking down at the youth, Black Jack told him, "They're not dead."

"Wuh?" The Heir of the Saotome School of Martial Arts queried suddenly. "What do you mean they're not dead? If those things ain't undead monsters than what the hell are-"

"Diseased," the unlicensed doctor answered. As the two turned their full attention to him, he explained, "Why do you think I was even in this country anyway?" At the silence he received he explained, "I was asked to come over on an emergency call by an associate of mine over at Tokyo General. They were being overwhelmed with cases of the condition you're seeing. These virally-mutated people we're up against aren't the slow-moving entities commonly seen in old-school zombie horror movies; they're incredibly agile with very keen senses." He sighed. "As you've noticed when you came to my aid, if one spots you, they will not hesitate to run towards you in an instant."

The pigtailed martial artist nodded his head, all too aware of how quickly they were overwhelmed in the open city streets of Tokyo; they seemed to come from all sides and fighting them really left him banged up. Fortunately the doctor was wise enough to patch him up after the battle. "So what do we call them if not 'undead'?" Ranma snapped; while not mad at the doctor per se, he was just upset with the situation in general. "Can we call them 'monsters'? 'Demons'? 'Them'? 'Infected'?"

"That works," Black Jack admitted. "Just keep in mind that these things are not zombies but infected human beings. As a result, you do not need to damage the cranium or spinal column to take them out of commission. Attacking one of the Infected anywhere will damage them and ultimately cause death, as we've seen from Miss Hino's liberal use of flame manipulation and my use of surgical tools." He them smirked. "Of course, aiming for the head is always the best course of action in this case."

Nodding her head in agreement, Rei added, "Just keep distance from the big ones that look like they're ready to pop though... the 'Boomers' I think someone referred to them as. That stuff they explode with just seems to make a bad situation worse." She winced as she saw the look on Ranma's face. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "You're not the only one that lost someone to-"

"What to next?" The heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts asked their resident 'adult supervision', interrupting Rei from saying something he knew would only upset both of them more. "You have an idea of what we can do to keep ourselves alive?"

A grim look came over the doctor's face. "Obviously we need to collect our forth member and leave the Hikawa Shrine; we've been here too long. I'm surprised a Horde hasn't come this way already. Once we're all together we head towards Tokyo Bay to the JDSF base."

The young woman's eyes widened. "JDSF!?" She shouted. "Do you have any clue how treacherous a trip that's going to be? That place is probably crawling with all kinds of the Infected! I'm also pretty sure they've taken all the aircraft and boats they had to get everyone they could out of Tokyo already."

"Very true," Dr. Black Jack agreed with the woman. "But that also means they've probably left a number of land vehicles there as well, _armoured_ vehicles. Not to mention that I'm sure that while they've taken a number of firearms and munitions with them, their priority was people and supplies for them; medical, food and fuel. There was no way they could've taken all of their on-hand supplies and I'm sure that of the majority that was left will be items of the Ground Self-Defence Forces, more than enough for a quartet of survivors such as us to defend themselves."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Ranma nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds good to me. Then what?"

"We see what's available for us at the base and make plans on where to go from there but know this..." he turned about towards the Hikawa Shrine. Walking, the Doctor told them the greatest truths as he made his way to collect their fourth member. "Tokyo is now a death-trap and unless we want to become part of its destroyed landscape or one of the Infected ourselves then we _are_ going to leave and we'll do so by any means necessary. **Any** means."

Both Ranma and Rei nodded their heads in agreement with the rather mercenary doctor. There was nothing to argue about.

A sharp whistle brought their attention to their fourth companion, who was currently up a tree, keeping an eye on the surrounding area through a pair of binoculars. "We may have a bit of a problem here, guys."

"Why, what do you see, Mr Santiago?" asked their resident surgeon/field medic. Dominic Santiago* sighed a bit.

"Well, we've got a rather large horde of Infected heading directly for this location. Good news is that they probably won't be here for another 15 minutes though. And please, I thought I asked you to just call me Dom."

"So basically, we've got 15 minutes ta get the heck outta here, that what'cha sayin', Dom?" Asked Ranma, always one for stating the obvious.

"That's the situation in a nutshell." Answered Dom. "By the way, I don't think I ever got your name, man."

"Oh, it's Ranma. Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Nice ta meet'cha."

"Likewise. Anything Goes, huh? I like the sound of that. Well, we should probably get moving if we don't wanna be here when those freaks get here. I've only got two clips of ammo left for my rifle, and we probably won't be able to find anymore until we make it to that JSDF base."

As they left the Shrine, Rei took one last look at the place she had called home for most of her life. Sighing, she turned around, and in an effort to take her mind off it, asked "So Dom, why are you here anyway? Ranma and I live in this city, and the Doctor here was called in because of this disease, but why is a single armed American soldier roaming the streets of Tokyo?"

"Oh, it's not really all that big of a deal. My unit were doing some joint training exercises with the local JSDF teams when this whole mess started. When the call came to evacuate the city, we offered our assistance. My squad was the last out. On the way, we ran into a small group of survivors, about 5 of 'em. There wasn't quite enough room for them in our truck, so I volunteered to stay behind. Then I met up with the Doc here about a day later, and that brings us to now."

"I see. That makes sense, and speaks well of you as well." Said Rei, who wasn't very big on the military in general, but could still approve of someone staying behind so that those less able to defend themselves could get away, as that was the same thing that she would do, and indeed had done herself a couple of days ago.

"There is another reason I'm still here, but I don't think we should be discussing this anymore for the moment, or that horde is gonna catch us"

"Yeah, let's get outta here. I'm still feeling kinda drained," piped up Ranma, "And I need to eat to get my Ki levels up before I can get into a serious fight."

"None of us are at 100 percent," replied Dr Black Jack, "so avoiding any un-necessary battles would indeed be the best strategy."

"No arguments here." Answered Rei.

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Authors Notes: OK, so this is where I'm supposed to put the usual "Hey this is my first FanFic, tell me what you think" message? Well, here goes...

I started this fic back in May on the Anime Addventure, I'm sure at least some of you are familiar with that site. This first chapter is all three episodes that got put up, the first and last of which are mine. Kudos to Red Priest of the 17th Order who wrote Black Jack's intro, never would have thought of adding him in personally, but now that he's there I can use him. Haven't read the manga or watched any of the anime, so if he seems OOC I apologise in advance. Also, I'm sure you've already figured it out, but this is an AU version of Dominic Santiago from GoW. As for moving off the Addventure, I just figured that this would be easier.

.rorrim a teG


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